Gaming D¿j¿ Vu

Check out some of the PlayStation titles rooted deep in gaming history.

By IGN Staff

While we're all for seeing new ideas in gaming, some companies are bold enough to look to the past and dig up some great classic games with name recognition, and update them for today's gaming tastes.

The PlayStation has its fair share of classic remakes; some good, some bad, some you'd wish they'd never even bothered in the first place. Here are a few of the games that link themselves with the early days of gaming.

There's a fine line between remake and sequel, so keep that in mind when you read the following.

Lucasfilm was into gaming way back in the days of the Atari home computer systems. The company developed two games during this time, one of which was a fast, furious, futuristic game of soccer called Ballblazer -- it was also one of the first games to feature split-screen gaming from a first-person perspective.

It's a great game for the classic systems, but for the PlayStation, the development went horribly wrong. Poor frame rates and dull action surround this remake. It could have been much better, but instead it's just lost in the crowd.

Contra has always been a favorite, starting its life in the arcade and NES and expanding over the Game Boy, Genesis, Super NES, and PC. A little known fact: the original development team of the Contra series went on to greener pastures as the prestigious developer Treasure.

Appaloosa picked up the heavy gauntlet and tried not once, but twice, to bring the Contra series to the 32-bit age. Sorry folks, but they failed. These games lack the same energy and action that the original had to offer, and it would be wise for Konami to select a new team to continue the series.

Anyone who frequented an arcade in the early '80s had to have shelled out the bucks playing this "cross-the-road" game from Sega. Get the froggy across traffic and the river, and send him home to the lilypads at the bank of the water.

The PlayStation version sold extremely well ¿ it was a consumer success but a critical failure. The game utilizes a confusing 3D perspective that could have benefited for better control over the camera ¿ but that's only one step into improving it.

Look at your fingers. If you've played Track & Field in the arcade, your tips are probably flatter than normal due to the massive button pounding required in this game.

The PlayStation version is a superb remake, building 3D graphics around the classic button-mashing gameplay. If you loved the arcade game, there's no reason why you shouldn't have this game in your library.

Before DMA became an N64 Dream Team member, it made its mark on the Amiga with an incredibly addictive puzzle game known as Lemmings. The game was so popular and fun that it spanned across nearly every system known to man. The Lemmings pretty much became Psygnosis's unofficial mascot.

Instead of another 2D sequel, another developer took the idea and pushed it into a free-floating perspective. While the idea was there, the easy pick-up-and-play gameplay just wasn't, making the game a bit more convoluted than it should be. Well, live and learn ¿ the classic Lemmings will return in a compilation disc this Christmas.

This classic computer game made tracks as an action-puzzler, with its own maze creator to boot.

The PlayStation version is a port of the PC game which is simply a higher-resolution, crisper, cleaner, more detailed remake of the classic. In other words, if you liked the original game, there's nothing here to dislike (unless of course you like the basic graphics of the early 80s.)

Who hasn't heard of Mega Man? One of the oldest videogame heroes of all time has spanned sequels literally in the teens, something that would be difficult for other games to claim ¿ even Mario.

One of the most frequent requests Capcom received over the past few years was a 3D Mega Man. And now, PlayStation owners get what they ask for. Was it worth it to redo the game in a new perspective? Well, check our review and find out.

David Crane made a huge splash on the Atari 2600 with Pitfall!, one of the first platform heroes ever conceived for a game system. Every system in the early 80's had a version of the game, but the true Pitfall was on the Atari.

Activision knew a good thing when it had it ¿ this year saw a decent remake on the PlayStation. All the classic elements were present, from the vine swinging to the deadly scorpions. Activision also felt that Harry needed a voice, so it recruited the talents of IGN favorite Bruce Campbell ¿ a splendid choice.

Mmmm...bashing and stomping buildings, eating humans, and simply raising hell in downtown cities. That's Rampage Who couldn't like this classic arcade game from Bally?

Midway's PlayStation port of the arcade remake had a charm, but the repetitive nature simply made this game a mindless button-masher. What's worse, those guys took out the ability to have three players on-screen at once.

You can argue it all you want, but Tempest was quite possibly the first 3D shooter in existance. This fast and furious, knob-controlled game was so tailored to the arcade, that it never saw a home conversion at the time (An Atari 2600 version was in the works, but never finished).

Jeff Minter decided to change all that and rework the basic idea, spilling psychedelic imagery and techno music all over the place ¿ and this was on the Jaguar no less. Interplay picked up the game and put it on systems that really mattered ¿ the PlayStation.

Atari helped release Xevious in the arcade for Namco, one of the more interesting pairings of the early 80s. This shooter featured pseudo-3D gameplay: as your ship hovered high above the land shooting endless waves of alien craft, you can launch bombs and take out ground targets, too.

Namco brought the idea home again, milking a polygon-rich environment in a new 3D perspective. Despite a few framerate problems, this shooter is really well done, and keeps to the original theme splendidly.

The Future

And for those looking for more remakes, there's a few heading our way in the coming months. Look forward to Asteroids from Activision, Centipede from Hasbro, and even the arcade title Gauntlet Legends may make an appearance on the PlayStation sometime next year.